Former Oakland city councilmember Loren Taylor has a slight lead over former congressmember Barbara Lee in the hotly contested race for mayor. The winner will finish the term of Sheng Thao, who was recalled by voters last November.
Preliminary returns released by the Alameda County Registrar of Voters April 15 showed Taylor with 51.17%, followed by Lee at 48.83% after nine rounds of ranked choice voting. Additional results should be released Friday.
Political observers had thought that Taylor would have a lead with the first returns. He had previously run for mayor against Thao in 2022 and lost by fewer than 700 votes. Lee, who served for decades in Congress representing the city, was believed to have a formidable advantage when she entered the race in January. But Taylor made it a contest in recent weeks. He outraised Lee in the final weeks of the campaign.
“Our campaign continues to gain momentum because Oaklanders are stepping up to demand a city government that actually delivers for them,” he stated in a pre-election email to supporters.
Lee was upbeat at her election night party and told supporters that she expects it to be a long week as she awaits further results.
Lee had the backing of the Alameda Democratic Party and LGBTQ organizations, including the Bay Area Reporter, which endorsed her. A strong ally to the queer community, Lee ran on a campaign of increasing economic opportunity for Oaklanders.
Both candidates also ran on public safety as a leading issue.
During the campaign, LGBTQ advocates had raised concerns about Taylor’s association with Seneca Scott, a 2022 mayoral candidate who has made homophobic and transphobic statements in the past.
The Alameda County Democratic Party and the East Bay Stonewall Democratic Club in 2023 condemned Scott's homophobic social media posts, some of which were directed at Brandon Harami, a gay man who was then Thao's director of community resilience and her de facto LGBTQ liaison. In his posts, Scott used an old trope that equates gay men with pedophiles. (Harami, who had continued in his job under interim Mayor Kevin Jenkins, was let go, along with other staffers, last week in a City Hall shake-up.)
At an LGBTQ mayoral forum held March 1, Taylor was asked by a member of the public about his connection to Scott and if he would directly condemn his anti-LGBTQ comments.
“I completely condemn any homophobic or transphobic comments from Mr. Scott or anyone else,” Taylor said, according to a video of the forum. “Absolutely, I stand with the LGBTQ community.”
In a phone interview with the B.A.R. before the election, Lee decried hate speech leveled by Scott.
“Hate does not belong in any community,” Lee said. “You’re known by the company you keep. I’ve pushed back on hate anytime. It’s an indication of how my opponent will govern.”
In an interview that aired on NPR April 15, Taylor seemed to agree with comments made by Governor Gavin Newsom when he came out against trans women and girls playing on female sports teams. “Well, it’s an issue of fairness. I completely agree with you on that,” Newsom said to his guest, right-wing provocateur Charlie Kirk.
Asked about Newsom’s comments, Taylor said, “I do think it has some truth to it.”
In another matter Tuesday, Oakland voters appeared to approve a sales tax hike that should generate about $30 million in revenue for the cash-strapped city. Preliminary returns showed Measure A passing overwhelmingly 64.24% to 35.76%. The measure will increase the sales tax from 10.25% to 10.75%.
There were 10 candidates running for mayor, but the race quickly became a two-person affair between Taylor and Lee. All of the other candidates finished at 1.53% or lower, according to the unofficial results.
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